British Airways introduces new Boeing 747 to Lagos route

British Airways (BA) will be introducing a bigger and better Boeing 747 to its London-Lagos route from September.

Mr Kola Olayinka, British Airways commercial manager in Nigeria, said this in a statement released by Nosakhare Emma-Iyamu from QuandrantMSL Group, the agency that handles the airline’s media.

Olayinka said that each of the Lagos Boeing 747 fondly referred to as the ‘Super High J Aircraft’ within the BA’s family would have 14 seats in its first class, 86 in business class, 30 in world traveller plus and 145 in world traveller.

“The new aircraft are larger than the Boeing 777s which the airline currently operates and will add an extra 343 seats a week on the busy route between London and Nigeria’s commercial capital-Lagos.

“The newest aircraft with well refreshed interior, and the state-of-the-art entertainment system, also have a larger Club World cabin with 86 lie-flat beds and choice of the upper deck cabin for our dedicated business class customers,’ Olayinka said.

He said that some of the aircraft had begun flying on popular BA routes to New York, Chicago, Johannesburg, Dubai, Boston, Riyadh, Kuwait, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington DC from London.

Olayinka also noted, “We know customers who fly in these aircraft will appreciate the improved interiors, with their mood lighting, updated seating and the new entertainment system.”

He added that the aircraft were equipped with Panasonic’s next-generation eX3 entertainment system.

He said these would give BA’s customers a choice of over 1,300 hours of entertainment that would include over 130 movies and 400 TV programmes on larger, high-resolution screens, with touch and swipe functionality, giving the system the familiar feel of using a tablet.

“As part of the upgrade, customers in world traveller plus will now have access to a universal power socket at every seat, capable of accepting plugs from the UK, US and Europe.

“In addition, world traveller customers will have their own USB sockets to power phones and tablets,’’ he said.

He said that its seats in the world traveller’s section had been upgraded to ensure customers’ comfort.

He said that flight numbers and schedule would remain the same with BA75 departing Heathrow at 11:30 a.m. and landing in Lagos at 1755p.m.

He said that the return service operates as BA74, would depart Lagos at 22:55p.m., to arrive at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 at 05:25a.m., the following morning.